LCB opening e-commerce fulfillment center in Washington County

April 17, 2020

Barbara Miller
Observer-Reporter

The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board announced Thursday that it is opening an e-commerce fulfillment center in Washington County by this weekend.

The local center, which will not be open to the public, is to be one of 121 that will be operating statewide after an initial rollout of three and then, 46.

The LCB has significantly increased the number of orders it is accepting daily at FineWineAndGoodSpirits.com.

Limited LCB staff and contractors at fulfillment centers pick and pack e-commerce orders for shipment.

“Today, we’re accepting 6,500 orders through our website, an 850% increase since April 1, when limited e-commerce sales resumed, and a 261% increase over the 1,800 orders we had been consistently accepting each day for a number of days,” said Tim Holden, board chairman, in a news release Thursday.

Holden acknowledged, “Our website can’t handle the daily volume our network of nearly 600 stores supported.” Purchases are limited to six bottles per transaction from a reduced catalog of top-selling wines and spirits.

As order fulfillment capacity increases, the PLCB will continue increasing the number of orders it takes each day, expecting to be able to accept 10,000 or more orders daily in coming days.

E-commerce sales of alcohol through the LCB in all of fiscal year 2018-19 totaled about 39,000 orders and $5 million dollars. The agency expects e-commerce sales to exceed those annual records as early as next week, just considering sales since April 1.

The establishments known as “state stores” remain closed to the public due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, but other alcohol-related businesses remain in operation.